Good news for those infected or co-infected with Hepatitis C in Ontario

- Gilead applauds Ontario’s Ministry of Health for expanding access to curative hepatitis C therapies to all diagnosed patients, regardless of severity of illness
- Ontario’s expanded access includes EPCLUSA®, a 12 week treatment for patients with chronic hepatitis C across all six genotypes
- Gilead’s new product, VOSEVI™ is now available under the Ontario Drug Benefit Program
- The removal of the fibrosis level criterion for access furthers Canada’s commitment to the World Heal

From CATIE, Sean R. Hosein reports on a study designed to find out more about the impact of these viruses on pregnancy and birth outcomes in co-infected women.

- Hepatitis C co-infection increases risk of pregnancy complications for women with HIV
- Women co-infected with hepatitis C had higher HIV viral loads when giving birth
- Researchers suggest screening women with HIV for hepatitis C before pregnancy
Due to shared routes of infection, co-infection with hepatitis-causing viruses, particularly hepatitis B-virus (HBV) and/or hepatitis C virus (HCV), is relatively common among some people with HIV. To find out more about the impact of these viru

Add your voice and endorse our call to Eliminate hepatitis C in Canada at ctac.ca/EliminateHepC
Did you know that an estimated 220,000 – 245,000 Canadians are infected with hepatitis C and that around 44% of those individuals are unaware of their status?
Hepatitis C is curable, and although Canada has signed up to the World Health Organisation’s target to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030, we aren't on course to achieve it.
That's why CTAC needs your help!
Vis

Researchers propose “broad multisector interventions that address income, housing affordability, substance use and mental health issues” to address the high degree of food insecurity in their study. From CATIE, Sean R. Hosein reports.

- Canadian study of people with HIV and hepatitis C co-infection finds that limited access to food is associated with higher levels of HIV in the blood and 10% fewer CD4+ immune cells.
- Ontario research reports 70% of HIV-positive participants had experienced food insecurity over the past year, six times greater than HIV-negative people.
- Researchers say addressing underlying food insecurity could improve treatment adherence and health outcomes of people living with HIV.
Researchers who e

Bob Leahy says the news on World AIDS Day that the approach to criminalizing HIV non-disclosure in Canada has changed has left some confused. Here is an easy to follow laymens’ guide to what went down.

World AIDS Day 2017 saw a dizzying array of announcements. Two in particular contained news of particular importance to people living with HIV. They were about the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure, a complicated topic that generated more commentary and some controversy. The purpose of this article is to explain what the news meant for people living with HIV. Part two will deal with what people are saying about it – and our opinion too.
Background: It’s important for people living wit

Force plans to issue guards to officers from January, saying people infected with blood-borne viruses use spitting as a weapon. From The Guardian, Damien Gayle reports.

Avon and Somerset police says the restraints will be used only when a person threatens to spit, has attempted to spit or has already spat. Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA
A police force has been accused of fear mongering and stigmatising sufferers of hepatitis C and HIV by playing up the risks of transmission of blood-borne viruses as a reason to introduce spit guards.
Avon and Somerset police announced their plan to issue spit guards to all operational officers from January next year. “Each d

"... we found that elevated coffee consumption had an independent protective effect on all-cause mortality risk.” From Infohep.org, Michael Carter reports.

Drinking three or more cups of coffee a day halves the risk of death from any cause for people with HIV/hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infection, French investigators report in the Journal of Hepatology. The protective effect of coffee consumption observed in the study was much larger than the 14% reduction in mortality observed in the general population.
“In this large prospective nationwide cohort of patients co-infected with HIV-HCV followed-up in French hospital departments, we found t

PASAN has started a critical fundraising campaign.

PASAN is the only community-based organization in Canada providing HIV, AIDS and hepatitis C prevention, education and support services exclusively to prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families.
PASAN works with prisoners in provincial and federal corrections facilities throughout the province of Ontario, but faces tremendous constraints in doing this work.
It’s become increasingly difficult for PASAN staff to be able to access prisons to conduct educational programming about harm redu

From CATIE on the occasion of World Hepatitis Day (July 28), this report on the current state of the fight against Hepatitis C in Canada.

Hepatitis C is a silent killer (people can have it for decades without any symptoms) and a story that is not commonly known in Canada. Yet this virus affects many people, highlights inequities in our health and social systems and is part of an important Canadian story.
Canada has a history of being on the forefront of addressing hepatitis C, starting with Dr. Michael Houghton, an internationally recognized microbiologist at the University of Alberta, who was the first to co-discover hepatitis

Guest author Michael Liddell: "... people who use drugs and their allies are using the mantra of 'nothing about us without us' to organize and demand action."

At the opening of the 25th Harm Reduction International Conference in Montreal held in Montreal in May of this year, the Federal Minister of Health Jane Philpott announced that more people have died in the overdose epidemic in the past few years than during the height of the AIDS crisis in the late 80s and early 90s. This fact is made even more tragic considering that it need not happen.
This grim reality was on the minds of many and was the catalyst for a workshop hosted by Direction 180

CTAC Talks is an innovative web series highlighting treatment access issues and solutions for Canadians living with HIV and Viral Hepatitis.

CTAC's expert guests, Dr. Lisa Barrett, Carrielynn Lund and Dr. Jordan Feld explore the current landscape of Hepatitis C treatment in Canada; a cure is available but there are significant treatment access barriers.
For more information, visit the Canadian Treatment Access Council (CTAC), here.

CTAC Talks is an innovative web series highlighting treatment access issues and solutions for Canadians living with HIV and Viral Hepatitis.

CTAC's expert guests, Joshua Edward, Dane Griffiths, Sipiwe Mapfumo and Fanta Ongoiba discuss the impact of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, or PrEP, which involves the use of antiretroviral medications by an HIV-negative person to prevent possible HIV transmission.
For more information, visit the Canadian Treatment Access Council (CTAC), here.

Bob Leahy talks to long-time HIV and Hep C survivor Barry Haarde as he prepares to tackle his sixth marathon bike ride to raise awareness and money for hemophilia

Bob Leahy: Hi again Barry. Tell us about your route you will be travelling this time.
Barry Haarde: After completing five trans-continental tours in the U.S., including last year’s 5,000 mile trek from Seattle to Key West in 60 days, we decided to change things up a bit and ride the length of the Alaska Highway. The ride starts at “Mile 0” of the AlCan route in Dawson Creek, B.C. and tracks northwest in to Alaska, finishing near Fairbanks. Then, I’ll be riding an additional 650 mile

From CATIE, Sean R. Hosein reports on studies comparing the effect of comorbidities on life expectancy in people living with HIV and those who are HIV-negative.

In the 20th century, life expectancy increased in Canada and other high-income countries thanks to improvements in medicine, better living conditions and so on. These changes have led some researchers to focus on something called health-adjusted life expectancy: exploring the number of years a person can expect to live in good and bad health and taking into account age-related illness, death and disability.
Among many HIV-positive people in Canada and other high-income countries there has be

CTAC may be struggling to retain its government funding but it proved last week in Toronto that it’s still a highly relevant platform for treatment advocacy work in Canada.

CTAC executive director Shelina Karmali, award winner Francisco Ibanez-Carrasco and board chair Terry Pigeon
The three-day CTAC (formerly known as Canadian Treatment Action Council) 2017 Treatment Access Conference held in Toronto last week was particularly strong on PrEP and Hepatitis C (Hep C) treatment advocacy, What struck me most though was its well-defined activist roots and embracing of community mobilizing, community engagement and grass roots advocacy. Both presentations and disc